Showing results by narrator "Jill Smith" in All Categories

To be clear: Beatrice, Duchess of Kesgrave, does not think every dead person in London is the victim of a sinister plot. The city is large, after all, and some of its inhabitants had to have died from innocent causes. Like Peter Huzza, who was killed in a horrifying steam engine accident. It is shocking, yes, the way his body was torn apart by the explosion of his very own machine, but not entirely surprising. High-pressure steam is notoriously dangerous to harness. There is no reason to suspect foul play. Nope, none at all.

Stormy Morgan left her hometown of Shadow Hills, Michigan, with one goal: To write the great American novel and strike it rich. Now, without a book contract, she’s back at her family restaurant in a one-stoplight town...and she’s convinced things couldn’t possibly get worse. That feeling only lasts until her first shift, when on a trip to the storage building behind the restaurant, she literally trips over a body. Stormy is a woman - or maybe a witch - lost in a sea of magic and despair...but murder might just lead her out of it.

The intimacy of a cabin at Lake Tahoe provides the combustible circumstances that bring Diana Holland and Lane Christianson together in this passionate novel of first discovery.

Stormy Morgan is a witch with too much attitude, an old love fueling new fires in her soul, and a talking cat who keeps threatening to give her an ulcer. She’s got a full plate. Things get even busier in her life when a body drops outside her boyfriend Hunter Ryan’s house...and the death looks like more than a standard murder. Even though her magic is growing at an exponential rate, Stormy is still a novice when it comes to wielding her new power. She’s determined to find answers, and prove herself invaluable to Hunter in the process, but each lead brings more questions.

Since the new Duchess of Kesgrave cannot be swayed from her unfortunate interest in dead bodies, Lady Abercrombie decides to confront the matter head-on by hosting a murder mystery dinner party. Gathering together several of society’s most influential members, she concocts an amusing puzzle-play, assigns roles, and stands back to allow Bea to impress them all with her ingenuity.

It looks like a Merry Christmas is around the corner in Whiskey Springs. Fallon Foster’s ex-girlfriend, Olivia Nolan, has moved to Amsterdam. Fallon is settling into her life with Riley Main and their son, Owen. Andi Maguire has finally found love with Billie Steele. And the town is celebrating the birth of its newest resident, a little girl named Hope. The celebratory mood is cut short when Billie delivers the news that Olivia is dead. Olivia’s death sends shock waves through the small town. And it won’t be the last piece of unexpected news.

Things are flowing smoothly for Robin in Spellford Cove. She’s got a support network she loves, business is going great - she’s even thinking of hiring another employee - and things with Hunter areheating up both literally and figuratively. But when strange things start happening in town, and a number of bodies start showing up, Robin thinks there’s more to it than meets the eye. She smells magic, and she knows that she’s going to have to get involved to get to the bottom of it.

Despite suffering a few initial setbacks, the former Beatrice Hyde-Clare has settled into her new position nicely. Thanks to Lady Abercrombie’s machinations, she has secured the admiration of society and finally earned the respect of her staff. Even the lessons in defending herself, which her husband, the Duke of Kesgrave, insists she take if she wants to continue in her dangerous avocation, are going well. But then she learns from a most unlikely source that Kesgrave’s malevolent uncle is scheming to destroy her happiness.

My name is Rachel. I’m straight... I think. I also have a mountain of student loans and a smart mouth. I wasn’t serious when I told Pari Sadashiv I’d marry her. It was only party banter! Except Pari needs a green card, and she’s willing to give me a breather from drowning in debt. My off-the-cuff idea might not be so terrible. We get along as friends. She’s really romantically cautious, which I find heartbreaking. She deserves someone to laugh with. She’s kind. And calm. And gorgeous. A couple of years with her actually sounds pretty good.

Between dodging the avalanche of my crumbling business and learning how to change a two-year-old’s diaper, my life has taken unexpected turns. But I’m nothing if not a resourceful billionaire. Of course I hire a nanny—and only the best. But there’s one small problem. The best nanny tasked with helping my non-verbal niece come out of her shell is none other than Mercedes Hendricks. My ex. My first great love. The woman who told me to never contact her again six years ago.

Twenty-four-year-old Catherine Fellingham keeps a low profile - in society and in her family. A practical young woman, she leaves the spotlight to her beautiful younger sister and prefers quiet pursuits such as reading. But all that changes the moment she learns of her mother’s very excellent scheme to keep the family out of debtors’ prison. The scatter-brained Lady Fellingham has been selling commissions in the king’s army, and Catherine must shake off her indifference in order to save her family from a potentially ruinous scandal.

Journey to Five Island Cove for a roaring good time with friends old and new, their sons and daughters, and all their new husbands as they navigate the heartaches and celebrations of life and love. When someone returns to the Cove no one ever expected to see again, old wounds open just as they'd started to heal. This group of women will be tested again, both on land and at sea, just as they once were as teens.

The former Beatrice Hyde-Clare is having a little trouble adjusting to her new situation. Now installed as the duchess of Kesgrave in elegant splendor in Berkeley Square, she is confounded by the stately residence’s seemingly endless array of rooms. And every time one of the maids addresses her as "your grace", she flinches.

As the London Daily Gazette’s popular gossip columnist, she is extremely adept at sneaking into houses, assuming disguises and overseeing a vast network of spies to ensure she stays abreast of the beau monde’s comings and goings. If it sometimes seems as though she was hiding behind the settee during a particularly fierce quarrel between a husband and his wife, it’s most likely because she was hiding behind the settee during their fierce quarrel.

Fallon Foster is Whiskey Springs’ self-proclaimed token lesbian. She isn’t a token any longer. After her year-long affair with best friend Andi Maguire ends, Fallon hopes to earn the trust and win the heart of the town’s newest resident, Riley Main. Ghosts from the past still haunt Fallon and Riley. Informed by loss and betrayal, the pair endeavors to find their way to each other. Along the way, their growing affection and burgeoning relationship will change the lives and the paths of more people than Riley and Fallon could imagine.

There’s a prominent threat on the block...and he might just be sharing Stormy Morgan’s roof. She’s a new witch, but she has a big problem...and it talks. Her new roommate Krankle may look cute, but he’s a huge pain in her posterior. He’s also hiding something. Before she can focus on that, however, the unthinkable happens.

It is hardly surprising Verity Lark can’t sleep at night with all the thoughts darting through her mind: her recent stay in Newgate, her debt to Colson Hardwicke, the horrible abuse suffered by the children at Fortescue’s that her reporting on the orphan asylum several years earlier had failed to uncover. And then of course there are the shooting lessons she has promised to give to the Duchess of Kesgrave. Verity has spent three months cruelly mocking the former spinster for her investigative pretensions, and now she is obligated to teach the woman how to fire a deadly weapon.

Deathwalker continues to adapt to his new life in the Kingdom of Nord. He has a long way to go if he hopes to be strong enough to find and rescue his friend. To celebrate the formation of the Timberfall Duchy a weeklong festival is in the works. Before the festival he is charged with setting up the various portal stations across the kingdom. The Dark forces arrayed against him have not sat idle. War is beginning to spread across the continent leading many refugees to flee to the prosperous Timberfall with the hope of a better future. But are all those that arrive coming with good intentions?

Well, maybe not all supernaturals. I tend to avoid using my fury traits, but when I reluctantly use my power of invisibility and then can't undo it, I don't know whether the gods are punishing me—or someone else is. At first my condition isn't so bad. I can play well-deserved pranks on my family and aid Chief Fox as a silent observer in town. As time passes, however, it becomes clear that the longer I'm sight unseen, the more clear and present danger I'm in.

Twenty-six-year-old Beatrice Hyde-Clare is far too shy to investigate the suspicious death of a fellow guest in the Lake District. A spinster who lives on the sufferance of her relatives, she would certainly not presume to search the rooms of her host's son and his friend looking for evidence. Reared in the twin virtues of deference and docility, she would absolutely never think to question the imperious Duke of Kesgrave about anything, let alone how he chose to represent the incident to the local constable. And yet that's exactly what she does.